The Holmes Family: September/October '23

At the beginning of September, I got the chance to close out our three weeks of youth camps by conducting the S.M.I.T.E. graduation in Nigeria’s southeast. In total, the Student Missions Institutes for Training in Evangelism (held in Ogbomoso, Abuja, and Port Harcourt) welcomed nearly 500 campers from over 100 churches and enrolled more than 3800 children to hear the Gospel in five-day Bible clubs. Outside of Nigeria, in addition to the camps already being held in Kenya (for the last 3 years) and Ghana (which held its first graduation this year), our ministry is scheduled to start a new S.M.I.T.E. each year. Uganda began this year in September, and S.M.I.T.E. New England will be held in July of next year at Connecticut; Tanzania is our new camp for 2025 (technically in December of next year), and plans are underway to partner with FBMI’s Team Thailand for a Student Missions Institute for Training in Evangelism in 2026. Evangelist Ajayi and Pastor Adewale successfully started the work in Uganda [flier pictured] with 68 registered students representing 14 churches; they enrolled more than 1200 people in 10 Bible clubs and saw over 600 saved.

Also in September, for the third time ever, our mission board conducted a Mastermind, this time in Istanbul, Turkey. Mastermind gathers FBMI’s staff members and missionaries from around the world in a forum designed as an exchange of ideas and strategies for a better fulfillment of the Great Commission. This time, it was a joy to attend with Sabrina [pictured with me and fellow missionaries], do some sightseeing and souvenir shopping, and have the chance to see firsthand the work that some of our missionaries are doing in a difficult part of the world.

In October, my family had the great privilege of traveling to Thailand to introduce child evangelism for missionaries working with our mission board’s team. We did three days of training for about 30 people; then two churches conducted five Bible clubs the next week. The trip was truly one my favorite things I have ever done in ministry because my whole family was involved in the training. I did the teaching sessions, Sabrina demonstrated the club Bible lessons, Victoria gave Wordless Book demos [pictured], and Brian taught a missionary story each day. The remaining time was filled with sightseeing, visiting both churches, enjoying family time, and fellowshipping with missionary friends.

Church highlights for the two months included hosting our mission board president and his wife for a ladies’ conference and church revival meeting. Dr. & Mrs. Mark Bosje visited with the families working together here, ministered in both churches, and gave us plenty of opportunities for fellowship. During the Spirit Renewal Meeting, we hosted an open house for the seminary students and area pastors [prayer meeting on our new auditorium site pictured], and we held a second-ever training seminar for pastors and workers involved in our outreach to prisons. Lastly, our fourth and fifth times to have an attendance of over 400 in just the last five months at Truth Baptist came courtesy of the ordination of a new deacon and also a Sunday when we invited the parents of our academy students.

Pastor Timothy Adesina of Berean Baptist Church in Ogbomoso, testifies of our ministry to help churches to have a way to train their members for service:

Since the commencement of the grand opening of the Temple Bible Institute and the first sample class under which those who registered were orientated on what it is all about, the Lord has been helping us to continue where Missionary Pastor Daniel Lang and Evangelist Tunde Ajayi left off. With 20 students attending each of the classes, there is no doubt the students were being exposed to truth of the Bible they never knew before. I want to thank God for the life of Missionary Mark Holmes, who made all of this possible by giving us the Temple Bible Institute curriculum and assisting us in sending his men to do the grand opening. This required intellectual and financial investments. Pray that God will bless our efforts and cause all the enrollees to embrace the truth.

[Sample flier for the institutes]

Pastor Friday Godwin of First Independent Baptist Church of Gasaki, does a Mobile Institute, ensuring that several village churches can have ministry training:

So far we have 3 churches where we hold the teaching, which includes Gasaki, Gbugbu, and Gamgi. I'm excited by the turn out at Gamgi and Gbugbu centers where we had a total of 25 students. I and Pastor Timothy also visited the churches in Ankara; we had a meeting with the members in the three churches to start institutes there. For now, 3 other churches join us for the institute at Gasaki. There, we have classes for both church workers and pastors’ wives.

Who We Are

Mark Joseph Holmes was called to the ministry at the age of fifteen, five years after he was saved. He went to Hyles-Anderson College to receive his training and graduated summa cum laude in 2000 with a degree in Pastoral Theology. During Mark’s senior year, God placed on his heart the desire to reach the people of Nigeria, so he spent an extra year in preparation by taking missions courses. Mark served on the same bus route each college year, as captain for three years.

Sabrina Michelle (Hopkins) was saved at the age of eight and surrendered her life to God five years later. While at Hyles-Anderson College studying music education, she served in the Bible Club and deaf ministry and also traveled one summer with a tour group. After graduation with a Music Education degree, during the year before their wedding, Sabrina taught fourth grade at her home church’s Christian school—Central Baptist in Baton Rouge.

As newlyweds, Mark and Sabrina served at their sending church where Mark oversaw the bus ministry and helped in the youth department, Sunday schools, and junior churches. He was privileged to start a children's church and young adult class during his two years of service, and he also regularly preached at a prison ministry and taught for a local Bible institute. Sabrina taught private piano for two Christian schools; she played often in the church services and also taught the beginner Sunday school class. Mark and Sabrina started full-time deputation at the end of May, 2003. Mark Joseph, Junior was born on December 4th of the same year.

In June of 2005, the Holmes family began their first term as Fundamental Baptist Missions International missionaries in Nigeria. Soon, Truth Baptist Church along with Temple Baptist Institute was started, the church now averaging 220 on Sundays with 42 graduates from the ministry training school. Property with buildings was purchased, and Providence Baptist College & Seminary opened its doors in August 2009 and has now produced 30 graduates. 35 churches have been started by those who have been trained or ordained by their ministry, including one of the most recent, Grace & Glory Baptist Church in Abuja, in which the Holmes family is also involved. Mark and Sabrina have returned to the U.S. for the birth of: Victoria Noel 12/14/05
Brian Michael 8/20/07
Noah Preston 2/3/12

LaDonna Elizabeth 7/3/14
For nearly a decade, Truth Baptist Church has been the home of a national pastors' conference, an annual youth camp, a full curriculum DVD correspondence college, and the City of Refuge recently became their newest ministry.

Where We Are

The Niger River is Nigeria’s most remarkable physical feature, as well as the source of its name. Formerly a British colony, Nigeria gained its independence in 1960 and became an independent nation of three culturally distinctive regions and at least 250 different language groups—more than any other African country. Home of the world’s largest black population, it is estimated that almost one out of every six Africans resides in Nigeria.

Upon independence, Nigeria inherited a currency that was more valuable than the U.S. dollar at the time. Yet the country has consumed itself with the sell of oil and other natural resources and all but abandoned its agricultural sector, leading to Nigeria’s diminished currency value and heightened reliance upon imports and aide from other countries. Military coups, ethnic tensions, a thirty month “civil war” that claimed over a million lives, and economic corruption have been the driving forces behind Nigeria’s instability of the last forty years. In 1998 a democracy was established, ending fifteen years of military rule.

Baptists have enjoyed a presence in the country for over 150 years with the Southern Baptists growing their own national convention and an estimated Baptist population numbering more than 3.5 million people; the former President of Nigeria was a claimed Baptist. However, Muslim influences are growing greater, indigenous beliefs are still popular, and many existing Baptist churches have abandoned biblical doctrines. There is a great need to reach the rest of the more than 170 million people of Africa’s most populous and possibly most influential nation.

The Holmes Family

September/October '23

No comments:

Ministry Pages

All Updates

Profile

Contact Us

Who We Are

Where We Are

What We Believe